U.S. Senate: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) won a
third term, defeating former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R)
by 58.80% to 37.98% and Lib., Grn., UST, NLP and w/in candidates
getting the rest.U.S. House:
Michigan, which lost one seat due to reapportionment, had several
contests of note.
- In
the new 14th CD (parts of Detroit city, Wayne County and Oakland
County),
Rep. Gary
Peters
(D) defeated Rep. Hansen
Clarke (D)in
the Aug. 7 primary. Peters then won in the general
election by a more than 5 to 1 margin.- In
the 5th CD (Flint) Rep. Dale Kildee (D), first elected in
1976, retired. His nephew Dan
Kildee
(D), president of the
Center for Community Progress,
defeatied businessman Jim
Slesak (R) by a more than 2 to 1 margin to succeed
him
in
the new 5th CD.- In the new 11th CD (parts of Oakland County and Wayne
County) the
spectacle of Rep. Thad McCotter (R)'s botched re-election campaign
created an open seat.David
Curson (D) won the
Sept. 5, 2012 special
primary electionin the old 11th CD for the
partial term, and served Nov. 13, 2012 through Jan. 2, 2013.
Running for the full term in the new 11th CDKerry
Bentivolio (R) defeated Dr. Syed
Taj
(D) by 50.76% to 44.36%. -In the 1st CD (Upper Peninsula), freshman Rep. Dan Benishek (R) won his
rematch with former state Rep. Gary McDowell (D) by 1,881 votes or 167,060 (48.14%) to 165,179 (47.60%).
The balance goes from 9R,
6D > 8R, 6D,
1v > 8R,
7D > 9R,
5D.State
Legislature: Republicans kept control both Houses of the State
Legislature. All 110 House
seats were up; the 38 Senate seats were not. The House went from 63R, 47D to 59R, 51D (Senate stayed at 26R, 12D).Ballot Measures: Voters
rejected
all six state proposals covering topic ranging from collective
bargaining to a limit on the enactment of new taxes.

Overview:Although the Republican ticket had not
carried Michigan since
Bush/Quayle defeated Dukakis/Bentsen in 1988, there were suggestions
that Mitt Romney's ties to the
state could put it in play.
That scenario was not to be. The Obama/Biden ticket won Michigan
with a plurality of 449,313 votes (9.50 percentage points), carrying 20
counties to 63 for Romney/Ryan. The
three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.6%
of the total votes in the presidential race (1,871,518 votes).
Macomb
(51.48% to 47.49%) and Oakland (53.56% to 45.20%) were relatively
close, but in Wayne County Obama racked up a plurality of 382,032 votes
(73.03% to 26.21%). Statewide 270,805 fewer votes were tallied in
the presidential contest than in 2008 (a 5.4% decrease).General
Election
DetailsObama
| RomneyBALLOT
[PDF]

2008
OverviewIn early October, as the financial crisis
piled on top of Michigan's own "one-state recession,"the
McCain camp cut its campaign here and shifted most of its resources
from the state. Obama
went
on to amass a plurality of 823,940 votes (16.47 percentage
points), carrying 47 counties to 36 for McCain. The
three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.4%
of the total votes in the presidential race (1,968,610 votes). In
those three counties Obama tallied a plurality of 572,234 votes.
In Macomb County, of Reagan Democrat fame, Obama won 53.38% to 44.77%
of the 419,216 votes cast.General
Election
DetailsObama/Allies
|
McCain/Allies
|
Nader

2004
OverviewBush made it close
in Michigan,
but Kerry prevailed in the end with a plurality of 165,437 votes (3.42
percentage points). Bush carried 68 counties to 15 for
Kerry.
The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced
39.5%
of the total votes in the presidential race (1,909,115 votes).
Kerry
amassed a plurality of 342,294 votes in Wayne county and narrowly won
in
Oakland county, while Bush narrowly won in Macomb county.General
Election DetailsKerry/Allies
|
Bush/Cheney
'04

Notes: The Democratic,
Republican,
Reform, Libertarian and Natural Law parties all retained ballot status
from 1998. The US Taxpayers Party of Michigan and the Green Party
of Michigan qualified by petitioning, submitting the required 30,272
valid
signatures (1 percent of the total vote cast for governor in 1998) by
July
20, 2000. No Reform Party nominee appeared on the ballot because
competing factions submitted two sets of papers, one for Buchanan and
one
for Hagelin.

2000
OverviewThe battleground
state of
Michigan went to Gore by a plurality of 217,279 votes (5.13 percentage
points). Bush carried 58 counties to 25 for Gore. Almost
40%
of the total vote (39.8%) comes from the Detroit area (Wayne, Oakland
and
Macomb counties). Gore piled up a plurality of 307,393 votes in
Wayne
county and narrowly won in Oakland and Macomb. As expected, Bush
did well in Western Michigan (Kent County/Grand Rapids and the
surrounding
counties). He underperformed in the city of Detroit, and would
have
had to have done better in Western Wayne county as well as in Oakland
and
Macomb to carry the state.

A statewide
school vouchers
initiative, Proposal 1, was overwhelmingly defeated, 69.1% to 30.9%.